Curing the Ailments of Boredom [Caelum]

[Naiya]

5th Day of Spring, 515 AV
Early Evening

They had traveled for most of the day through the grasses. The rolling hills changing little as they went, only the occasional run of water breaking up the landscape. What they really hoped to see was the Bluevein river, but that was still a long ride away.

Instead, the event that had inspired the end of their day of travel was the approaching dark. With camps still to be assembled they had decided it best to make camp before the last rays of the sun faded. Making a camp, however, was not something new to the Drykas, and the practice had not taken long. So rather than sitting around the campfire and watching dinner cook, Rue had decided to use the remaining light as an opportunity to do some exercising.

She had pulled her bow and her quiver from their place among her things, then with a torn scrap of cloth in hand, and a segment of rope in her belt, she had left to main grouping of camp for a small cluster of trees.

She tied the cloth to the first tree she found that the rope would fit around, making a sufficient target for her purpose. Then retreating to a reasonable distance for her bow she put down her collection of belongings, including the dagger and sheath at her waist, and sat in the grass to stretch the muscles that still protested the long day of travel.

She stretched both legs out in front of her, feet together and hips carefully not tipped towards one side or the other. Rotating her hips forward as best she could, she leaned her body over her legs feeling the pull of muscle first in her hamstrings and then in her calves. After the long day of abuse, her stretch was shallow, not quite reaching half way down her shin.

When her pain began to subside, she took a deep breath, feeling the expansion of her chest lift her partially out of her stretch. After a few ticks she released the breath, allowing the exhale to lower her body into a stretch that was deeper than the first. Still her hands reached not quite to her ankles. She waited perhaps a chime before repeating the the breathing exercise, and a few chimes more before doing so again. She knew that she could reach her toes, it would just take a bit more stretching. Perhaps the stretching of different muscles would help. So an 'L' stretch was next, named for the shape formed by her legs, or at least for the general shape. She really formed more of a wide 'V' shape, but she new some stuck with the milder angle of stretch.

This stretch was much the same, rotating the hips forward and reaching for her toes, though she could stretch much further this way for one reason or another. She repeated her breathing, switched legs, and returned back once more. Alternating without having to spend much thought on how long or how far she reached. When she was warmed and relaxed, she would know she was ready to stop.

Until then she was freed up to listen to the sounds that heralded the approach of night. Animals were seeking dens, night predators were beginning to stir. To her right, the camp made a similar din. Fire crackled and horses mulled about, seeking the greenest grass or the more comfortable position. She could hear the low thrumming rumble of conversation, drifting across the space between them. The spring weather was mild, not too cold, but she thought that soon they would appreciate the fire for more than the protection and the hot food it provided.

Naiya imagined that travel could not have offered much better a face than this. Mild weather, quite days of riding, and a company of good, if not entirely familiar people. It was not a bad way to start her adventures as Naiya Dawnwhisper.

[Caelum]

Traveling from Endrykas back to Riverfall was a terribly simple matter to Caelum. He had spent the majority of his life returned to Mizahar in a state of near constant motion, criss-crossing the continent; and his settling on the western edge of Cyphrus was relatively new to the history of him. He rode like the horselord he was, the dark strider who was his mount attuned to him. Most of Endrykas had probably assumed they were bonded, at least insolong as they came by Caelum at night. He was not bonded, however, not to a strider or yet in any other manner dictated by the terms of Nikali’s hold on him. Drykas was only one piece of what he was, and he at least could borrow one of Kavala’s herd and remember long dead flights with Aingeru. As was his habit, the ethaefal had wandered away from the main camp when the sun lowered to the horizon. He had no desire for dinner and whatever hunger ate at his bones it had nothing to do with food. Lillian was left helping Aoren feed the horses and the last he had seen her she was trying to convince the seer to sing a song for her. Ribbons of blood stained the farther reach of the sky and brushed into the encroaching violet of dusk. The day shapes of cloud shadows that rushed across the grasslands began to wither and fade, replaced by the more ethereal light of the moon. It was for this reason Caelum had departed the campsite and the greater company of his traveling companions – he did not care for them to all be witness to his transformation. He had always attempted when possible to change to and from his mortal seeming outside of any stranger’s regard. It bothered him that people stared, and people stared anyway without him erupting in flurry of gasping light for their entertainment and inevitable edification. The light of day had faded to the bright moonlight of the open plains, the shadows growing up from the feet of the trees in the small copse through which he walked. He had trespassed here, searching for the myrdas flower though he knew he was unlikely to find it blooming this early in the season. A bit of sphagnum moss was collected, however, and tucked away into the leather herbalists satchel that was almost always on him. It was a roll of supple leather outfitted with pockets and latches that he stuffed into an interior pocket of his riding duster. As he angled back in the direction of the campsite, he caught sight of one of his traveling companions performing what appeared to be warm up stretches. He drew to a halt and sagged both hands into the low slung weapons belt, curious eyes on. They were dark now, in his Drykas seeming, merely flicked with sunlit gold rather than swallowed by it. “Planning to practice at something?” He asked, the greeting casual and curious.

[Naiya]

Niaya surged to attention, her head whipping towards the source of the unexpected sound even as fear took shape in her posture. Sprawled as she was in the grass, she have no quick way to her feet, a fact that bothered her far less as she processed the situation.

The form emerging from the shadows of the copse of trees was Caelum, and the surge of fear at his unheard arrival was not a thing to be acted on. So, she took a deep breath and with deliberate care, brought her feet in together to a shape that resembled the wings of a butterfly and lay out across them continuing her stretches.

After what was no more that pause enough to gather her wits she spoke, "I didn't hear you coming, you startled me." Her new position did not give her great option towards seeing the sometimes-Dyrkas-sometimes-other man, but she could hear him now, and that was what was the most important.

His question still hung between them, draped in the soft sounds of approaching night. "My bow gets lonely if I ignore it for too long. I thought perhaps I would visit with it this evening." She shifted, sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest. The new set of her body contemplative as she gazed at Caelum.

She would have left her words at that, with another stranger it would have been plenty said. It seemed to closed off, too distant to leave it at that, and she didn't want to be distant. Her gaze shifted, following the line of his motion back towards the camp and then from there to the horses. It was there than her answer slept, among the other mounts. She had not ridden so far in so long, it brought an ache to all the muscles in her body. Complaining of motions too long without use. The tightening was what had inspired her late adventure, with any luck the stretching would prevent her from having too much discomfort come the next morning's departure.

"More than anything it was the aching of my muscles, I have not ridden so far in a long time, my body is protesting. I figured it would be best to placate it before the morning." She smiled then, signing a gentle offering. "Would you care to join me?"

[Caelum]

When fear skimmed through Naiya’s posture, Caelum went still and remained that way until the evidence of how he had startled the young woman faded from her frame. One of his thumbs was hooked in the low sling of a heavy leather weapons belt that was currently lacking a sword. It boasted instead of a pair of daggers and his shortbow was slung over shoulder. A clutch of arrows was gripped loosely in his free hand and he lightly drummed the wooden shafts against his thigh while studying her. He cast a glance at her shortbow and a smile dashed over his face. “Mine gets lonely too.” Without further hesitation, he swung his bow down from his should to hang it on the tree alongside the Drykas woman’s. The arrows he propped against the trunk with their sharp heads nestled in a knotted root and he dropped his satchel beside them too. An easy roll of his shoulders shrugged him out of his split riding duster and it jingled a soft, muffled tune from all the various trinkets and the pocket sized philtering kit that he had a habit of carrying on his person. Caelum was not a man who ever wanted to be unprepared. Some might call him paranoid, but in the decade he had been returned to Mizahar even his worst and most weighty concerns had proven true. Only a fool ignored a warning given them by the Lord of Nightmares himself. In short order Caelum was standing in front of Naiya but at enough distance to allow them both plenty of room to stretch and move around without running into each other. Pressing the full of his weight into a forward lunge, he drew his right arm over his head at the bend of an arm to stretch the muscles of his shoulder. Shortly he switched sides in both his lunge and his arm work to complete the process of limbering up. “Is it just the bow you’re looking to practice?” He asked, interested eyes lingering on Naiya. “I could use work at it. It’s sometimes a struggle to find time for it in the city where I’m not hunting regularly. It’s been several years, but I still don’t think I’m fully adjusted to city life. If your muscles are bothering you too much, there might be a strain.” Straightening back to his full height he signed an eloquent gesture for physician that quite harmoniously managed to flash the matched rakanivas coiling around his forearms down to the backs of his hands in glimmering, pale gold. They were the universal mark of healers, and he took for granted how well known they were, assuming the mark of them to be self explanatory and also an offer.

[Naiya]

He began to disassemble what seemed to be quite the collection of tools and weapons that he carried on his person. Her own assemblage of weapons and gear paled in comparison. She couldn't help but wonder what might have befallen the man to cause him such concern, even Naiya's life among the Drykas had not grown her worries to such lengths. It was good luck on her part, or perhaps bad luck on his.

When he began to stretch, Naiya no longer felt the need to sit still while she spoke to him, so she stood, rolling her shoulders a few times to loosen them. An act which met with a satisfying crackling in her back. She rolled her head, loosening her neck as well as she considered his question, and then, once she was still once more she responded.

"I suppose that would depend," she began, curious interest underlying her words, "On whether or not you could teach me a thing or two about daggers?"

That sounded odd, she decided, continuing on quickly to explain. "I was given a pair of them by my uncle way back when, but I've only ever been on the victim side of a lesson with my family. They didn't much approve of my interest in weapons and fighting."

Now, she had overshared, again. What was it that had her spewing information at him like an old friend? Perhaps it was because he was a Drykas, too. Whatever the reason, she just shook it from her mind. It didn't matter, she would just be more careful.

"I don't find enough time for my bow either, and I don't have the excuse of a city like yours, although, I do hope that will change soon. My husband, Shahar, hopes to take me with him hunting, and I hope to be a reliable shot before then." She grinned, the prospect of the hunt together a welcome happiness, though it faded quickly to a gentle melancholy.

Her gaze shifted from the man before her to the man that light up her mind, he was in the camp, taking care of things as he was wont to do. Despite sharing a tent, and their bond through Cheva, still they had not progressed much as a couple. In fact, she had made many efforts, and while he had long ago ceased to mind her gentle, comfort seeking touches, they were the most of the affections they shared.

She shook her head, trying to chase away such thoughts, just in time to catch the signing in Caelum's hands, physician she echoed, then reassurance, no need, gratitude. She caught also the marks on his forearms, glinting gold against his skin. He was a healer as some of the opal clan were, which made her consider his offer more seriously for a moment. "Perhaps if I feel worse in the morning, before we depart, if the offer will stand until then?"

She flashed a gentle gratitude once more, and after another quick glance after her husband, she moved to gather her bow and quiver, and check once more the target she had made.

The cloth was not small, but it was about the right size for Naiya, giving her a reasonable chance at making her arrow hit, while not being so small as to be daunting. Her real worry was that the rope might be cut, which would render her target useless. She waited there, by the tree while Caelum finished loosening his muscles. Readiness, inquiry? she signed to him. Forgoing spoken word for the moment.